"You mean that—finally?" he asked.
"Finally," she answered.
He moved to a door at the further end of the room, and opened it.
"Come," he said quietly. "You have gone too far to draw back. You shall see the secrets of my house. Follow me."
CHAPTER XXIV
The Secret of the House
She followed him out of the black room into a dark, narrow passage.
Her calmness and self-possession remained undisturbed. Without a tremor she accepted this unexpected invitation to the secrets of the Crooked House—quite ignorant of, and indifferent to, the danger to which she might be committing herself. That there were hidden things in the house she had for a long time been convinced, but of their nature she had been unable to form even a conjecture, in spite of many attempts to creep into the mystery. Copplestone's sudden decision to reveal them to her was a surprise, and an unpleasant check to the development of her schemes. Either he placed a much lower value on his secrets than she had expected, or her participation in them was by no means to be dreaded to the extent that she had relied upon. In any case her position was considerably weakened, and the success of her plans was no longer the assured thing she had believed it to be.